A tire bead is an important structural component of many tires. The tire bead is typically the inner most edge of the inner and outer sidewalls of a tire. When the tire is mounted on a wheel (or rim), these portions of the tire are in direct contact with the wheel (or rim). Particularly in tubeless tires, for example, the tire bead couples with the wheel structure to form an air-tight seal so that an interior pressure chamber may be maintained between the tire and the wheel. The tire may thus be inflated with air, nitrogen, or any other suitable gas, typically via a conventional valve stem. The interior pressure chamber is maintained at a desired pressure, which, in turn, exerts an outwardly directed force against the tire bead to assist in maintaining the air-tight seal.
Due to the strength and rigidity imparted to the sidewalls of many of today's tires, particularly larger automobile and/or truck tires, for example, it is often difficult to break the seal formed between the tire bead and the rim of the wheel in order to unseat the tire from the rim. Accordingly, changing a tire often involves the use of specialized tools to assist in breaking the tire bead. Tools such as hydraulic bead breakers use pressurized air targeted to the area between the tire and the rim to separate the tire from the rim. These tools can be expensive and they depend on a supply of pressurized air to function properly, which can be a problem if trying to change a tire in the field, for example, away from a service shop. Manual bead breakers, such as impact bead breakers and bead breaking hammers are more commonly used to break the bead for changing a tire. Conventional tire service hammers are designed to strike tires to remove them from a vehicle and then break the tire bead seal once removed. However, conventional tire service hammers are not designed to assist in the manipulation of a tire into a desirable position while also providing the capability to easily and effectively break the tire bead on that same tire.
It is disclosed herein to provide a tire service hammer that may be used in a variety of ways to manipulate the position of a wheel (i.e., a tire and rim) while also providing a unique configuration for efficiently and effectively breaking the bead of a tire.